We arrived in Whitehorse mid-afternoon in a pouring rain. No matter, we are now only 300 miles from Alaska were we to continue on our present route— and actually only about a hundred as the crow flies to Skagway. However, we’re turning north and hope to be in Dawson City by late tomorrow. Most of the folks in the Pioneer RV Campground tonight are headed to the border with the morning sunrise, at least assuming the rain stops. Whitehorse lies on the Yukon River and has been the capital of the Northwest Territories since 1953. It’s really pretty much the nerve center for the Yukon region with a booming population of 16,000— but that makes it far larger then anything else for several hundred miles around….. After yesterday’s ride through the Rockies, which I’ll mention in a bit, the travel today was something of a letdown, though by and large pretty nice country. We did cross the Continental Divide in the Cassair Mountains this morning. It is notable for dividing the drainage areas of the Mackenzie and Yukon rivers. But standing on the spot is not momentous, nor is the location even particularly picturesque. We did see some wildlife but nothing like yesterday. (Dave has run out to do some shopping so it’s possible that he’ll have a report on Whitehorse itself, but so far I’ve seen nothing but the eastern outskirts)….. Now, on to the Rockies. Last Saturday, we toured around the Banff/Jasper area and many of you have read the blog I’m sure. If I couldn’t conjure the superlatives or draw the word pictures exactly, I still hope I conveyed the awesomeness and beauty of the Rockies. Well, let me tell you, the eastern Canadian Rockies we rode yesterday are even more beautiful, if for no other reason than the fact that they are more varied and the region is more isolated so it doesn’t have any tourist feel. In fact, we often drove for ten or more miles without meeting an on-coming car. The ride ain’t for the faint-hearted however as it often resembles a roller coaster and edges along cliffs that drop off several hundred feet. No guard rails in sight. I’m forwarding some more Rockies pictures to Dan and they’ll appear here soon. And now I can compare notes on hoodoos (erosion pillars) and alleuvial fans (the silt and gravel conveyed down the mountains and which arranges itself at the base much in the shape of what the pre A/C folks waved in front of their faces. I really don’t have either the expertise or typing speed to try to describe the many geologic formations, but they are beautiful to behold!…. And wildlife, finally! We saw our first two bears within ten minutes of leaving Fort Nelson. We were to see a couple more along the way. We also saw caribou, Stone sheep (much like the Dall’s in Alaska but darker in color), a fox, a buffalo, and, you guessed it, several squirrels. No petting zoo….. Some statistics, for those who like them. Even after our climb over the Rockies, we are still averaging about 11 MPG. I guess we’re pleased. But most every day we travel we’re spending something over $75.00 on diesel fuel. Fuel is a little over a buck a liter, making that close to $4.75 per gallon. Of course, in a short time, we’ll be driving far less. Campgrounds average $20-$30 per night. We could cut this down but we look for places with an internet connection, preferably wi-fi, so this limits our choices to the “better” RV parks. So far, we’ve put 4600 miles on the odometer. Even though we’re not far from the Yukon River, we’re still at an altitude of 2,306 feet. And that’s all the numbers for today…. A little about Rv’ing, and I know some of you are far more versed in this than I. But I’ll try to give it from the perspective of the trip thus far. Foremost, the RV folks are friendly. They actually have some energy after driving for six or eight hours to tour the towns and sit around and BS. We’ve seen some folks at multiple campgrounds and, in fact, the folks that are right next to us tonight are the same folks who were right next to us back in Dawson Creek. This is fairly remarkable in that both campgrounds are large ones. However, my guess would be that there are 10 or 20 people at Pioneer tonight who were back in Dawson Creek. This is primarily because most everone is headed to Alaska and taking the same route…. As you can imagine, most of the RV’ers here are retired but there are exceptions. At a pullover, I talked to a 30ish guy who was on his way to Alaska from Alberta with his wife and three kids. (I’m not the truant officer so I didn’t ask about school. It should be noted, also, that Canadians have more vacation time than American workers) The campgrounds themselves range from beautifully sited and meticulously maintained to the dusty and grungy, with bathrooms that resemble those along highways or in college dormatories. But most of the owners of these places are pretty proud of them. It’s a hands-on type of work so they are very involved,, and most are a husband/wife endeavor, or wife/husband if you prefer, and the larger ones sometimes involve extended family and part-time high school students….. Just quickly, in the row at the campground tonight there are people from Virginia, North Dakota, California (2), Pennsylvania, Texas, Alberta, Ohio, and on and on. All headed to the Land of the Midnight Sun. Speaking of which, it’s now light from approximately 4:00 Am till 11:00 PM. It should be noted that we are now on Pacific Time, three hours behind you New Englanders… I intended to go on here for a while but will postpone to another day as I’m running out of time…. Hope all of you are well…. On to Dawson City and the gold rush!
June 15, 2006